Nearly 35 meters high, the Civic Tower rises behind the church Chiesa parrocchiale dei Santi Martino e Marco. The time when it was built is not known, but as count Giuseppe Sabbioni (1789-1874) wrote in his prestigious work on the history of Petriolo, the Civic Tower has antique origins. On the ground floor, a place that can still be seen nowadays hosts the vestry of a sixteenth century church. The Civic Tower used to host also its bell, whose sound should be clearly heard in the village and its surroundings.
In 1575, necessary restoration works begun, entrusted to Longobard masters, to whom the local community had to pay 40 florins. Further knowledge of following necessary restoration works date
back in the Eighteenth century, including the one dated 1793, by the Como-based architect Pietro Augustoni (1741-1815).
The Civic Tower also hosted the public clock. Around 1623, when it was built, the local council debated the proposal of choosing the manager of this new clock, who had to continually monitor the precision and the efficiency of its clockwork.
The public clock had an important role in the community life of Petriolo. Indeed, as written in the municipal register of the Eighteenth century, the clock was one of the objects of the attentions of the municipal administrators.
The most recent clock is the one built in 1912 by the clock factory “Cesare Fontana” in Milan; it has been working till 1997, when it was finally replaced by an electronic clockwork.
